Introduction to WPAS Forms

Wp App Studio allows you to create submit or search forms with fully responsive components based on Twitter's Bootstrap or jQuery UI frameworks enhanced with icon fonts.

Forms module helps you design how data entry to your app will be implemented. The forms screen has basic and advanced sections. The basic configuration option uses default parameters. The advanced section allows the detailed configuration options to better meet your data entry needs. The advanced features are optional. If you do not select any advanced feature, the default options are used in form configuration.

All forms created by WPAS offer graceful degradation option. Graceful degradation means that your Web site continues to operate even when viewed with a browser running in less-than-optimal settings. For example, when JavaScript is disabled, the forms gracefully degrade to html elements. This feature may be helpful when supporting low-bandwidth apps or some browsers not supporting full or no JavaScript.

Form Access

WPAS offers user role based access to form pages. For example, you can separate the forms app's logged-in users are allowed to access from publicly accessible forms. In addition, forms can be accessible to certain roles but not others. Users trying to access to forms get a customizable message translatable any language. All configurable at the form level.

Form scheduling feature is also provided to support time-based offers or any type of data entry. When this feature is enabled, form access granted based on the specified start and end datetime. When access times are expired, scheduling enabled form becomes unavailable and users accessing to the form page get a customizable message. In addition, WPAS forms can be disabled based on a successful submission number. For example, if you offer a special for only 5 users filling out your form, just put in 5 in the "Disable after" field and the form will able unavailable after 5 successful submissions.

Confirmations

The confirmation state of your form starts after a successful entry is recorded. You can display a message to your users or redirect users to an other website or a page. Text message based confirmation is useful when there are no other steps left to fulfill. Redirecting helps users transition to another set of steps which can not be fulfilled filling out the current form or any other reason.Redirect URL is required when this option is selected. In addition, ajax based form submissions are disabled.

If you decide to show a text message after a successful entry, you can use ajax submission option. The success and error messages are available in this option. The messages are customizable and translatable. "Show Text" and "Redirect" confirmation methods both offer user and admin notification options. Email notifications are useful when you need to notify admins and/or users of a successful data entry.

Validations

The form input validation is a process of testing and ensuring that the users enter required and properly formatted information as the data move from client-side to server-side. In client-side input validations and error recovery process is carried out in the user’s browser itself. In server side validation, the inputs submitted by users are analyzed and sanitized at server. Implementing both validation methods ensure that the data integrity is intact without compromising on the quality of user experience. WPAS offers both client-side and server-side validation on all attribute types.

Spam and Attack Prevention

WPAS forms have integrated cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attack prevention mechanisms by automatically striping out potentially malicious code from the entry. Automated SPAM posts are also prevented using honeypots and CAPTCHA (optional) combination. Having SPAM protection methods in place guards against bots using various types of computing resources or collecting certain types of sensitive information on your site. The protection against XSS and CSRF attacks help prevent the attackers from changing user settings, hijacking user accounts, poisoning cookies with malicious code, exposing SSL connections, accessing restricted sites and even launching false advertisements on your behalf.

Selective Enqueue

The selective enqueue method is a way of eliminating all the overhead of unnecessary code to render web pages to minimize load times and provide better user experience. WPAS form pages only load the scripts and css files required thus making page load times more affordable for slow connections as much as possible. The selective enqueue method also makes using different frameworks on multiple app pages possible, minimizing conflicts that may occur due to attachment of multiple css and javascript files.

The following describes the form configuration fields.

Name

Unique identifier for the form. Can not contain capital letters,dashes or spaces. Between 3 and 30 characters.

Type (WPAS 2.2)

Sets the type of form to be created. Submit forms are for sending and saving data. Search forms are for searching content and displaying results on a page.

Attached to Entity

ets the primary entity for your form. The selected entity will be main entry point and will be used for the dependent selection.

Dependents

Sets the dependents of the primary entity for your form. The attributes of the dependents will be included in the form layout.

Title

Optional. Sets the first piece of text displayed to users when they see your form. Optional. Max:40 char. Use it to standardize the form's title."

Description

Optional. Set a short description or instructions, notes, or guidelines that users should read when filling out the form. This will appear directly below the form title and above the fields.

Framework

Sets the frontend framework which will be used to configure the overall look and feel of the form. If you pick jQuery UI, you can choose your theme from App's Settings under Theme tab. Default is Twitter Bootstrap.

Enable Font Awesome

Enables Font Awesome icon font for radios, checkboxes and other icons. Can not be disabled for the Bootstrap framework.

Targeted Device (WPAS 2.8)

Sets the targeted device that your form will primarily be displayed on.

Label Placement

Sets the field label position relative to the field input location. Options are Top,Left or Inside.

Dropdown Color (WPAS 4.6.0)

Changes the background color of dropdowns.

Element Size (WPAS 2.8)

Sets the field height to create larger or smaller form controls that match button sizes.

Display Radios and Check boxes Inline (WPAS 2.8)

Sets a series of check boxes or radios appear on the same line.

No Access Message (WPAS 2.8)

Sets the text which will be displayed to users that do not have access to this form.

Disable Submit Action (WPAS 4.6.0)

Disables submit action when checked. For example, you can disable submit action when you do not want store form results such as calculations.

Submit Status

Sets the status of all form entries. 'publish' - Entry is available immediately.'pending' - Entry is pending review. 'draft' - Entry is in draft status. 'future' - Entry is will be published in the future. 'private' - Entry is not visible to users who are not logged in. 'trash' - Entry is in trashbin. Default is publish.

Submit Button Type

Standard button is a white background button with a darkgray border. Primary button provides extra visual weight and identifies the primary action in a set of buttons. Info button is used as an alternative to the standard style. Success button indicates a successful or positive action. Warning button indicates caution should be taken with this action. Danger button indicates a dangerous or potentially negative action. Inverse button is alternate dark gray button, not tied to a semantic action or use. Link button deemphasizes a button by making it look like a link while maintaining button behavior.

Submit Button Label

Sets the forms's submit button label. Max:30 Char.

Submit Button Size

Sets the submit button size of your form.

Submit Button Icon Class

Sets the font awesome icon which will be displayed next to the button text.

Submit Button Icon Size

Sets the size of font awesome icon which will be displayed next to the button text.

Show Captcha

Sets Captcha display option. WPAS forms use the 'honeypot' technique by default however CAPTCHAs can also be used for even stronger protection. Always Show displays captcha for everybody. Visitors Only option shows it for only visitors. Never Show option disables it.

Disable After

Disables form submissions after the set number reached. Leave blank for no limit.

Confirmation Method

Sets the event that will occur after a successful entry. Show text option display a text message. Redirect option redirects users toanother URL.

Enable Ajax

When set ajax form submissions are enabled.

After Submit

Sets what users see after a successful submission. Show Form option shows the completed form. Clear Form option resets all fields to their defaults. Hide Form option hides the form from the user who completed the entry.

Success Text

Sets the text which will be displayed to users after a successful entry.

Error Text

Sets the text which will be displayed to users after a unsuccessful entry.

Confirmation URL

When set, after a successful entry, users get redirected to another url. Max:255 Char.

Email User Confirmation

When checked user confirmation emails are enabled.

User Email Send To

Select the email attribute you want to send the receipt to. The user email address must be available in the attribute selected otherwise no emails are sent.

User Email Reply To

Sets the email address users can reply to the receipt. Leave it blank if you don't want them to email you. Max:255 Char.

User Email Subject

Sets the subject of user emails. Max:255 Char.

User Email Message

A short message confirming a successful submission.

Email Admin Confirmation

When checked, enables admin confirmation emails.

Admin Email Send To

The email address admins to get messages when a successful entry occurred. Leave it blank if you don't want them to get emails. Max:255 Char.

Admin Email Reply To

The email address admins to reply to the receipt. Leave it blank if you don't want them to email you. Max:255 Char.

Admin Email Subject

Sets the subject of admin emails. Max:255 Char.

Admin Email Message

Sets a message confirming a successful submission.

Enable Form Scheduling

Set to make the form automatically become active or inactive at a certain date.

Start Datetime

The start datetime after which form will be active.

End Datetime

The last form submission datetime after which form will be inactive.

Create Setup Page (WPAS 3.0)

When enabled, creates a setup page for your submit form upon plugin activation.

Page Title (WPAS 3.0)

Sets the title of the setup page for your submit form.

Create Block Level Button (WPAS 3.0)

Makes the button span the full width of its grid size.